MENLO TIMES

Skyfora, building hyper-local weather intelligence, led by Fredrik Borgström, Kim Kaisti, Jostein Mælan, Marja Mattila, and Christoffer von Schantz, has raised €6.5 million. The round includes equity participation from Eviny Ventures, Ugly Duckling Ventures, Lumo Labs, and the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, alongside non-dilutive funding from Business Finland. Rising Demand For Weather Intelligence. The funding comes as demand for high-resolution weather data continu

Juno Propulsion, building the next-generation rocket propulsion with rotating detonation combustion, led by Alexis Harroun and Ari Martinez, has announced the successful close of a $1.4 million pre-seed financing round led by SOSV, with participation from Hypernova Fund, Leslie Ventures, Activate, Collaborative Fund, Safar Partners, and Cape Fear Ventures. The funding will accelerate development and flight qualification of Project IRIS, Juno’s rotating detonation combustion (

PhysicsX, a physical AI company on a mission to accelerate innovation and overhaul what engineering and manufacturing look like today, led by Robin Tuluie, Jacomo Corbo, and Nicolas Haag, has announced an oversubscribed $300 million Series C financing at a valuation of approximately $2.4 billion. The round is led by Temasek, with participation from new investors M&G Investments and Intrepid Growth Partners, alongside existing investors including Applied Materials, Atomico, Ge

Neworbit, engineering earth's lowest orbiting satellites, led by Anatolii Papulov and Ruslan Rakhimov, has raised $18.5 million in an oversubscribed Series A, led by Voyager and joined by angel investors including David Kirk (former Chief Scientist at NVIDIA) and Lawrence Leuschner (co-founder and former CEO of TIER Mobility), the family office Custos, and continued backing from Atlantic.vc, Lifeline Ventures, LGF, and Illusian. Commercial aircraft fly at around 10 kilometers

Muon Space, designing, building, and operating satellite constellations optimized for your mission, led by Jonny Dyer(CEO and Co-Founder), Paul Day(VP Production and Co-Founder), Dan McCleese(Chief Scientist and Co-Founder), Reuben Rohrschneider(Chief Mission Architect and Co-Founder), and Pascal Stang(CTO and Co-Founder), has unveiled Condor-Ultra, its newest spacecraft platform developed for high-power, networked constellations of hundreds to thousands of satellites. Built

Helion, a Washington-based fusion energy company, led by Dr. David Kirtley(Founder & CEO), Chris Pihl(Co-Founder & CTO), and Dr. George Votroubek(Co-Founder & Principal Scientist), has announced a $465 million Series G investment round, bringing the total invested to date in Helion to $1.5 billion and valuing the company at $15.5 billion post-money. The raise was led by Thrive Capital, with participation from additional new investors, including Alta Park Capital, Anti Fund, B

AstroForge, a deep-space mining company on a mission to extract valuable metals from asteroids - starting with PGMs, or platinum group metals, led by Matt Gialich and the team, has assembled the major flight hardware of DeepSpace-2 on its integration floor for the first time. Making Deep Space Access Routine. After assembling the major flight hardware of its DeepSpace-2 spacecraft, the company is preparing for a fourth-quarter launch and the next phase of testing and refinem

IMU Biosciences, decoding the immune system with unprecedented resolution and scale to transform how we understand, diagnose, and treat disease, led by Adam Laing, Mario Cantero, John Baker, and Thomas Hayday, has successfully brought its Series A to over $53 million (£40 million) in an oversubscribed financing round, co-led by IQ Capital and Molten Ventures, and supported by The British Business Bank, and Meltwind alongside existing investors. Building a Comprehensive Map o

Focused Energy, the world’s leading laser fusion company, led by Thomas Forner, Prof. Dr. Markus Roth, and the team, has raised $240 million in a Series A financing round. In addition to RWE, the investors include the Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation SPRIND, the European Innovation Council Fund, and the previous lead investor, Prime Movers Lab. Strategic Backing for Fusion Commercialization. The oversubscribed funding round attracted investors from Germany, Europe,

OQC, developing enterprise-ready quantum solutions, led by Gerald Mullally, Dr Peter Leek, and the team, has closed an oversubscribed £260 million ($350m) Series C funding round, Europe’s largest-ever private funding round for a quantum computing company. Bullhound Capital led the round, which included investment from the British Business Bank, Fynveur (advised by Invus), COFIDES, RCM Private Markets Fund managed by Rokos Capital Management (US) LP, Alpha Edison, Fulcrum Asse

Quobly, building industrial silicon-based quantum computers, led by Maud Vinet, Tristan Meunier, and the team, has announced the closing of a €115 million Series A financing led by Bpifrance, SEALSQ, and STMicroelectronics, with participation from the European Innovation Council (EIC Fund), Blast, ALIAD (Air Liquide Venture Capital), and existing investor Innovacom, bringing together leading industrial, sovereign, and deeptech investors. Existing shareholders also include the

Astrobotic, a pioneering space exploration company aiming to make space accessible to the world, led by John Thornton and others, has announced that it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Voyager Technologies (NYSE: VOYG). The transaction marks a major milestone in Astrobotic’s nearly two‑decade mission to make the Moon accessible and to build the infrastructure needed for a continuous U.S. presence on the lunar surface. Strengthening Voyager’s Lunar Ambitions. Un

NewLimit, radically extending human healthspan, led by Jacob Kimmel, Brian Armstrong, Blake Byers, and the team, has closed a $435M Series C led by Founders Fund alongside new investors Thrive Capital, Greenoaks, and Quiet Capital, and returning investors Kleiner Perkins, Abstract, Nat Friedman/Daniel Gross, Valor Equity Partners, Eli Lilly Ventures, Human Capital, and others. The company plans to begin human clinical trials next year following the discovery of a prototype th

Impulse Space, the in-space mobility leader, led by Tom Mueller and the team, has raised $500 million in Series D funding, co-led by 137 Ventures and BANNER VC, bringing the company’s total capital raised to over $1 billion. Additional participating investors include Founder’s Fund, Lux Capital, and Linse Capital. Scaling Infrastructure for In-Space Mobility. The funding will support team expansion and manufacturing growth as Impulse Space accelerates development of in-space

Firefly Space, a space and defense technology company that enables government and commercial customers to launch, land, and operate in space, anywhere, anytime, led by Jason Kim and the team, has announced it was awarded a $75 million subcontract from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to deliver four drones to the Moon’s south pole in support of the agency’s MoonFall mission, targeted to launch no earlier than 2028. MoonFall is part of the first phase of NASA’s Moon Base

Vast Space, building next-gen space stations, led by Jed McCaleb, Max Haot, and the team, has announced its commitment to establish its European headquarters in Paris and an agreement with the Government of France, for two missions involving two French astronauts: the sixth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station and the Haven-1 test flight, the first crewed mission to Vast’s Haven-1 commercial space station scheduled to launch in 2027 at the Choose Franc

PLD Space, unlocking rapid, reliable, and sustainable access to space, led by Ezequiel Sánchez, Raúl Torres, Raúl Verdú, and the team, has announced a €35 million investment in the development and deployment of its Launch Complex at the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in Kourou (French Guiana) over the 2025-2026 period. Strengthening Europe’s Spaceport Ecosystem The investment makes PLD Space the first private company to deploy capital expenditure at this scale at the ELM-Diamant l

Invisix, a Netherlands-based semiconductor metrology company developing soft X-ray measurement systems for advanced logic and memory manufacturing, led by Christina Porter, Sietse van der Post, Roald Dogge, Hens van Ooijen, and the team, has raised an oversubscribed €20 million seed round, which includes Hitachi Ventures, Transition Ventures, imec.xpand, Doosan Investment Co., and a tier-1 semiconductor manufacturer. The funding will support team expansion, accelerate develop

Observable Space, a real-time observation platform powering ground and space optics, led by Dan Roelker, Rick Hedrick, Connor Poole, and the team, has raised a $90 million Series A funding round, led by Lux Capital, co-led by Upfront Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Island Green Capital, and RTX Ventures, and with participation from BRV Capital, Fathom Fund, and Venrex. The company has also announced a $94 million sole-sourced Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ

Orbital Industries, an AI-first industrial company using frontier AI to design, manufacture, and ship the physical products the world needs, led by Jonathan Godwin, James Gin-Pollock, Daniel Miodovnik, and the team, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Plural. Existing and previous investors, NVentures (NVIDIA), Radical Ventures, Compound, and Fly Ventures also participated. The funding will support scaling Orbital’s data centre products, expanding its AI and eng